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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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THE BLESSED DEAD 



WHERE ARE THEY? 

SHALL NEVER DIE. 

HEAVEN A HOME. 

DEGREES OF BLISS IN HEAVEN. 



BY 



Rev. J. JM. GREENE, D.D. 



9 1888 ' 



BOSTON AND CHICAGO: 
(Eottflregational ^imUagsScfjooI anlr ^ublisfjmg Society 



/r^9- 







Copyright, 1888, by 
Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society. 



-.- 



Electrotyped and Printed by 
Stanley &* Usher, iyi Devonshire Street, Boston, Mass. 



TO THE MEMORY OF HER 



who for twenty-three and a half years was the light and joy 
of my home; whose faith, sweet and tender spirit, and 
beautiful life were a constant inspiration and a rich fountain 
of moral and spiritual strength; who in the face of death 
was as fearless as innocence itself and as calm as the 
setting sun; and the hope of meeting whom beyond the skies 
makes even heaven appear more attractive. 



WHERE ARE THEY? 



Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, 
be with me where I am ; that they may behold my glory, 
which thou hast given me. — John 17 : 24. 

If some man were to lead thee into a palace, and in 
the presence of all were to give thee an opportunity of 
conversing with the king, and made thee sit at his table 
and join in his fare, thou wouldest call thyself the happi- 
est of men. But when you are going up to heaven, and 
are to stand by the King of the universe himself, and vie 
with angels in brightness, and enjoy even that unutterable 
glory, do you hesitate? — Saint Chrysostom. 

How much greater the difference must be between the 
felicity of that heavenly kingdom to which we are aspiring, 
and all, even the most striking figurative expressions taken 
from the things of this earth. — Archbishop Leighton. 

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, 

Through the dear might of him that walked the waves ; 

Where, other groves and other streams along, 

With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, 

And hears the unexpressive nuptial song, 

In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. 

— Milton. 



WHERE ARE THEY? 



Forced upon every thoughtful mind is the 
question : where are the dear Christian friends 
who, freed from the burdens of earth, have 
passed on to the spirit land ? We have decked 
with flowers the lifeless body, have borne it 
with solemn tread to the silent grave, and 
seen it carefully embosomed in the mother 
earth, with the fond expectation that from it 
will come forth, at the resurrection, a spiritual 
and glorified body. We have returned to a sad 
and desolate home where stands the vacant 
chair ; on the table lies the oft perused book 
waiting for the hand now cold and motionless, 
while before us is the instrument of music 
whose sounds thrilled with delight the spirit 
that has gone. Here are the garments which 
did not so much adorn as they were adorned 
by the dear one who wore them. Every thing 



THE BLESSED DEAD, 



in the home has tender and vivid associations 
with the loved one who is no longer with us 
to cheer and strengthen our fainting souls. 

But where are our departed ones who are 
said to " sleep in Jesus " ? The spirit which 
thought, willed, reasoned, felt, hoped, loved, 
has left the clayey tabernacle inhabited by it 
here, and entered upon existence in a higher 
state. When the chrysalis becomes a butterfly 
it throws off and deserts the rough case which 
has inswathed it. So when the soul, wearied 
with the cares and vexations of the earth, rises 
into its purer and freer life, it discards the frail 
tenement of dust which had so imprisoned and 
oppressed it. 

But whither has the released spirit gone ? 
Does it sleep in the grave, waiting there the 
redemption of the body ? 

Is it in a world where all departed spirits lie 
in a state of unconsciousness till the sound of 
the last trump shall wake them and summon 
them forth to judgment ? 

Or is it in some unnamed world, dreaming 
out century after century of fantastic existence, 



WHERE ARE THEY? 



9 



till God shall reclothe it with the habiliments 
of a personal and glorious immortality ? 

Some say that the departed soul is in a 
conscious state, but passing through a woeful 
purgatory, and that prayers for the dead still 
avail for its purity and happiness. 

All these notions have their advocates ; but 
they seem to be only speculations, theories 
invented by men, and not to accord with the 
word of God. On a theme like this our only 
source of information is the sacred oracles. 
Man has knowledge with regard to the future 
life only as he receives it from Him who spake 
to the world through the prophets and his Son. 
The Bible alone is our store-house of wisdom 
with regard to the sainted dead. Its utterances 
we can rest upon as sagacious and enduring. 

The Bible seems to say that there are but 
two conditions of a believing soul : one, in 
this life, subject to trial, hardship, suffering, 
pain, discipline; the other, "with Christ " in 
heaven, where are " fulness of joy" and 
" pleasures forever more/' The Scriptures do 
not teach that there is an intermediate state 



IO THE BLESSED DEAD, 



of sleep or unconsciousness. They do not 
say a word in favor of a condition in which 
priestly masses or purgatorial fires can fit the 
soul for celestial joys. The biblical teaching 
as expressed in one of the leading church 
symbols is : " The souls of believers are at 
their death made perfect in holiness, and do 
immediately pass into glory." 

Here two sublime truths are declared, full 
of consolation and comfort to those whose 
hearts bleed because of the absence of loved 
ones taken from their embrace. 

Being " believers," they were " at the mo- 
ment of death made perfect in holiness." 
How transporting the thought ! In their 
earthly life they wrestled with sin and 
temptation, with unholy thoughts and desires, 
with selfishness in a thousand forms. But 
with death came a blessed change. The 
inward and outward struggle with evil ceased, 
and they were crowned with what they had so 
often longed for — perfection in holiness. 

Now add to this that they " do immediately 
pass into glory," and what can we desire more? 



WHERE ARE THEY ? I I 



But are we sure that our loved ones immedi- 
ately after death pass into the light and bliss 
of heaven? Let us open our Bibles and see. 
Christ had perfect knowledge of this matter, 
and he would not mislead us. He says : 
" Father, I will that they also, whom thou 
hast given me, be with me where I am ; that 
they may behold my glory, which thou hast 
given me" (John 17:24). 

Here is no intimation of a condition of a 
believer in Christ, except his life on the 
earth and his glorified state with Christ in 
heaven. Jesus looked on his disciples as, while 
in the flesh, subject to the hardships and trials, 
the discouragements and sorrows, of a cold 
and uncongenial world ; and he offered the 
prayer, and fervently breathed out the peti- 
tion, that in no long time, those whom he had 
loved so much here, might taste with him the 
sweets and share the honors and glory of 
heaven. And this is Christ's desire with 
regard to all his disciples. They may cling 
to the earth and be fond of its baubles ; for 
they know not what he has in store for them. 



12 THE BLESSED DEAD, 



But Jesus, who understands it all, longs to have 
his loved ones come up higher, and enter upon 
the full fruition of what is richer and sweeter 
than their most gladsome dream of bliss. 

It is well to remember, too, that the Father 
always hears Christ when he prays. If he 
prayed that his disciples might immediately 
after death be with him in heaven, then we 
may rest assured that they will be there. 

If we now turn our thoughts to Christ's 
words to the penitent thief : " To-day shalt 
thou be with me in paradise," we can make 
nothing of them except that departed saints 
enter into the joys of heaven immediately 
upon closing their eyes on the scenes of earth. 
" To-day" can not mean next year, much less 
countless ages in the future ; but it means the 
very day of death. The dying saint shuts his 
eyes on sublunary, to open them on celestial, 
things. He bids adieu to friends in the flesh, 
and is at once welcomed into the society of 
"the spirits of the just made perfect" in 
heaven. He ceases to feel the warm pressure 
of the hand of sympathizing friends at his 



WHERE ARE THEY? 



13 



bedside, to receive the greetings of loved ones 
who are waiting for him in the land where are 
no tears, no sorrow, no pain, no sin. 

If also we consider the words of Christ in 
respect to Lazarus., we shall only find our faith, 
as to the immediate entrance of the soul into 
heaven, confirmed : " And it came to pass, that 
the beggar [Lazarus] died, and was carried by 
the angels into Abraham's bosom " (Lukei6 : 22). 

Abraham was in heaven enjoying the bless- 
ings of conscious existence in God's favor and 
love. To be in his bosom meant, in the Jewish 
phrase, to be in the highest celestial honor and 
bliss. Abraham was the " Friend of God," 
and was conceived of by the Jew as in the 
closest fellowship with him. Christ could not 
have used the language, " carried by the angels 
into Abraham's bosom," unless he designed to 
teach by it, that Lazarus went at death into 
supernal exaltation and happiness. 

Paul teaches the same comforting truth when 
he says, " For I am in a strait betwixt two, 
having a desire to depart, and to be with 
Christ ; which is far better. Nevertheless to 



14 THE BLESSED DEAD, 



abide in the flesh is more needful for you" 
(Phil, i : 23). 

The great apostle knew of only two conditions 
of a believing soul : one, in the flesh ; the 
other, with Christ in heaven ; and the latter, he 
says, is far better. Strong as was his attach- 
ment to his friends at Philippi, he was drawn 
more powerfully towards Christ and friends in 
the world above. 

How the dying words of the first Christian 
martyr chime in here : " And they stoned Ste- 
phen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, 
receive my spirit " (Acts 7: 59). Stephen ex- 
pected, when released by death, to go into the 
arms of his dear Saviour, in whose cause he had 
given up his life. His anticipations and hope 
may be ours, if we have a like faith, consecra- 
tion, and love. 

The apostle John says : " Blessed are the dead 
who die in the Lord, from henceforth " (Rev 
14: 13). "Henceforth" probably means "even 
from the moment of death." Those "who die 
in the Lord " go at once into the rapture and 
bliss of heaven. 



WHERE ARE THEY? 15 



Other words in the Revelation are : " These 
are they which came out of great tribulation,, 
and have washed their robes, and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb. 

" Therefore are they before the throne of 
God, and serve him day and night in his tem- 
ple : and he that sitteth on the throne shall 
dwell among them. 

"They shall hunger no more, neither thirst 
any more ; neither shall the sun light on them, 
nor any heat. 

"For the Lamb which is in the midst of 
the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them 
unto living fountains of waters : and God shall 
wipe away all tears from their eyes " (Rev. 

7:14-17). 

They are saints, who like us have lived, toiled, 

and suffered on this earth, whose condition is 

here sketched by the pencil of this inspired 

rtist. The church is now composed of like 

^ithful, devoted, afflicted disciples. If the 

early followers of Christ were at their death 

received into glory, and do serve God day and 

light in his temple, we can not doubt that the 



i6 



THE BLESSED DEAD, 



same exalted privilege awaits those who bear 
his likeness and walk in his footsteps now. 

Some corollaries of this comforting truth are 
w r orthy of notice. 

First, we see whither our thoughts respecting 
the dear ones who have gone to be with Christ, 
should be directed. The corporeal is so associ- 
ated with our conceptions of the departed, that 
there is a potent tendency in our minds to think 
of them as in the grave where the body rests. 
But we have seen that at death the spirit goes 
up to the abode of God, and reposes there in 
his sweet embrace. That intellect which spark- 
led with wit and intelligence ; that will w T hich 
chose and purposed grand things in life ; that 
reason which soared aloft and took distant 
worlds into its survey ; that genius which con- 
trived works of consummate skill ; that heart 
which loved so tenderly and sympathized so 
deeply ; in a word, the immortal spirit has not 
its wings confined, its heaven-given powers 
eclipsed, its spiritual nature extinguished by 
death. In its essence it is life, intelligence, 
sensibility, activity. Dull clay may lie down 



WHERE ARE THEY? 



17 



and molder back to dust ; but the spirit came 
from God and can find no rest but in God. 
When death comes and sunders the tie which 
holds soul and body together, and allows the 
spirit to take its flight, it goes as on the wings 
of the morning up to the very throne of God, 
and enters at once into joys which no earthly 
pen can describe. 

Thither our thoughts should go, when in the 
silence of the night sleep forsakes our eyelids, 
and our wakeful souls will not forget the loved 
ones borne away. In our day-dreams, too, 
when we wander with them in scenes familiar 
and sacred, let us leave them not in the Elysian 
fields, but in the paradise of God. As we go 
to the grave, like Mary, to weep there, let us 
ever think of our beloved, not as resting be- 
neath the sod, but as enthroned in the light and 
peace, the joy and blessedness, of the world 
where "the inhabitant shall not say, I am 
sick ; " and where there is no night, no sorrow, 
no death. 

Again, we see how groundless are the fears 
which often annoy and distress the believer, in 



i8 



THE BLESSED DEAD, 



the prospect of the separation of soul and body. 
A correct view of death and of the life beyond 
dissipates this fear as the rising sun dispels the 
cloud of summer fog. Professor Albert Hop- 
kins, of Williams College, only a few hours 
before his death, said to his brother, Mark Hop- 
kins : M Death is only going from one room in 
our heavenly Father's house into another ; and 
I am sure the other room is the better." 

Here we see faith conquering the fear of 
death. There is even, as in Paul's case, a joyful 
expectation of better things beyond. 

We have stood by the dying-bed of one in 
the bloom of youth, whose pathway in life had 
been profusely strewn with flowers, and heard 
her say, as with the eye of faith she gazed on 
the golden city: "How I long to reach my 
heavenly home ! The music of it now fills my 
ear; the prospect transports my soul." 

We have seen the weary pilgrim of fourscore 
years, watching with delight his failing strength 
and weakening pulse, and hailing with gladness 
the death film as it closed over his eye, because 
these were welcome signs that he was nearing 



WHERE ARE THEY? 



19 



his journey's end and coming into the promised 
rest. 

When we remember that death is to the 
believer 

" Only a messenger sent from his throne, 
Calling us children, like prodigals, home ; 
Only the portal that leadeth to life, 
Only cessation of earths angry strife," 

can we wonder that the child of faith should pant 
for deliverance from the flesh, that he may walk 
on the banks of the river of the water of life ? 

The mother of the elder President Dwight 
lived to a great age. During her last years she 
often wept when the village bell tolled to pub- 
lish the tidings of a death, and she would say : 
" When will the bell toll for me ? It seems as if 
I shall never die." 

Some of us have looked upon the face of an 
aged mother departing from the world, and seen 
the sunshine of heaven on her brow as she 
neared the pearly gates. We have heard her 
expressions of longing to depart, and her " All 
is well," when borne up on angels' wings to 
be crowned before the throne. 



20 



THE BLESSED DEAD, 



Some of us have followed to the grave the 
remains of one whose life-work seemed only to 
have begun. Three little ones called her 
mother and with their tender arms clung to her 
with sweetest affection. Their childish prattle 
was dulcet music in her ears, and their beautiful 
faces beaming with health, filled her motherly 
heart with pride and bright visions of the 
future ; yet when she saw that disease had 
marked her as its victim, her faith enabled her 
joyfully to look death in the face and calmly to 
say: "Thy will, O God, be done." She was 
willing, at her Saviour's summons, to leave hus- 
band, children, father, mother, brothers and 
sisters, and go to the world of light and love 
where she would reign a queen for ever. Truly 
these are victories of faith. 

Can not we say in our sorrow : — 

"'Tis better to have loved and lost, 
Than never to have loved at all " ? 

Those " loved and lost ". ones have not ceased 
to be. The same prophet of song says of his 
departed : — 



WHERE ARE THEY? 



21 



" Thy voice is on the rolling air, 
I hear thee when the waters run, 
Thou standest in the rising sun, 
And in the setting thou art fair." 



To the child of God death is not a foe. Since 
Christ rose from the tomb, death is no longer 
the dread "king of terrors," but the shining 
harbinger of endless bliss, an angel sent to 
convoy us safely to our Father's house, and 
the grave is the gate to glory. 

The diamond differs from other precious 
stones by so brilliantly reflecting the light that 
it shines and sparkles even in an almost dark 
place. It has a strong affinity for light, as the 
magnet has for steel dust, and is sure to find 
some rays even in the darkness. 

God would have our souls diamond-like in 
their affinity for him. There is no condition in 
this world so gloomy, not even the valley of the 
shadow of death, that some rays of God's glory 
are not in it ; and the trusting, loving soul will 
find them and sparkle in them. The wisdom of 
God, his goodness, his love, his compassion, 
blaze in the most Cimmerian cloud which over- 



2 2 THE BLESSED DEAD, 



shadows us. Let us accustom ourselves to 
catch these rays of divine light, and not only 
reflect and be transfigured by them, but be filled 
with gladness as they that watch and note the 
first tokens of the morning. 

We need not, then, live in fear of death. 
Trembling and dread should not take hold of 
us when we see its approach to our door. If 
our life is hid with Christ in God we are safe. 
Under the aegis of his love no fiery darts can 
pierce us, no raging billows can overwhelm us. 
Leaning on his arm, trusting to his wisdom and 
strength, we shall gain the victory over every 
foe, and receive from our God "a crown of glory 
that fadeth not away." 

JUST BEYOND. 

Over just beyond the hill- tops, 
Where the sun sinks in the west, 

Is a land of untold brightness, 
Where the weary soul can rest. 

Just above the dark clouds o'er us, 
Where the stars shine all the night, 

Is a home where love's bright angel 
Never wearies with the light. 



WHERE ARE THEY? 23 



Just beyond life's flowing river, 

Over on the other shore, 
Many loved ones wait to greet us, 

When our journey here is o'er. 

Just beyond the morning's sunbeams, 

Over there across the way, 
Is a world of wondrous beauty, 

Where is one eternal day. 

There are troubled hearts reposing 

Safely on the Saviour's breast ; 
There the wicked cease from troubling, 

And the weary are at rest. — Anonymous. 



Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. 
— John ii : 26. 

Who says that my glorified friend is lost to me ? That 
which is with God can not be lost. And am I not in God's 
hand, and my beloved likewise? Am I not in my Father's 
house, and my beloved also? I live, but thou, O cher- 
ished soul, art living also. — Zochokke. 

Peace, peace ! he is not dead, he doth not sleep ; 
He hath awakened from the dream of life. 

— Shelley. 

They do not die, 
Nor lose their mortal sympathy, 
Nor change to us, although they change. 

— Tennyson. 



There is no death ! What seems so is transition ; 

This life of mortal breath 
Is but a suburb of the life elysian, 

Whose portal we call Death. — Longfellow. 



SHALL NEVER DIE. 



Marvelous power belongs to faith. It even 
conquers that universal vanquisher, death, which 
" rides in every passing breeze and lurks in 
every flower." Alexander with all his well- 
trained legions could not vanquish " the king of 
terrors." Caesar fell beneath its crushing heel 
and lost the scepter of this world's empire. 

How welcome the message that the loved 
ones gone from our sight have, by the power of 
faith, escaped the real conquest and dominion 
of death. Being in Christ they live, and do 
not die. Gladly do we in our thoughts follow 
them into the new and delightful scenes in 
which they now are engaged. What are their 
feelings with regard to us whom they have left 
behind ? Do they remember us ? Have they 
knowledge of us ? Do they desire to revisit 
the places so full of trial and sorrow to them 



28 



THE BLESSED DEAD 



here below ; or do they long to have us rise to 
the ineffable joys which they have found ? 

These are themes to which we may with 
profit turn our thoughts. If heaven were more 
real to us, earth would not so enslave and crush 
us. It is only as we see clearly the eternal in- 
heritance prepared for us above, that we hold 
loosely to the perishing treasures of time and 
sense. 

Full of comfort is the declaration of the 
Lord of life and glory : " Whosoever liveth and 
believeth in me shall never die." Our terres- 
trial life is only a fraction, simply the vestibule, 
of our existence. We call the separation of the 
soul from the body death, and we tremble in 
view of it. We stand by the side of the re- 
mains of our loved ones when the vital spark 
has left the body, and we call them dead. 

But Jesus meets us and says : If they be- 
lieved in me, death has no power to harm them ; 
their life in the flesh was only the first act in 
an endless career, on which at birth they 
entered ; believers in me never die ; they are as 
immortal as God himself ; here they were cir- 



SHALL NEVER DIE. 29 



cumscribed and hindered by countless influences 
which abridged their joy and obstructed their 
growth ; but now they are free from the tram- 
mels of sense and flesh, and have come into the 
liberty and glory of the very sons of God. 

Words can not express the comfort which 
such divine assurances give. Separation from 
the body is followed by immediate and personal 
union with God. Removal from earth secures 
residence at the court of heaven. The sunder- 
ing of the bonds which linked our dear ones to 
frail mortals, has brought them into fellowship 
with the perfected saints and angels before 
the celestial throne. The lower is changed for 
the higher ; the imperfect and perishing, for the 
perfect and enduring. Wearily and painfully 
they drew along the aching body here ; but 
now they are spirits pure and free, knowing no 
sorrow, languor, or pain. It was not easy to 
live and perform the duties which existence in 
the flesh imposed upon them ; but now the soul 
is liberated, and without effort rises to the sub- 
limest heights of duty and joy. The buried 
seed, when it bursts its envelope and emerges 



3<D THE BLESSED DEAD 



into its higher life, does not die. That is the 
beginning of its true life, its exaltation and 
coronation. So when the believer in Christ 
casts off the body, he is advanced to en- 
larged privilege, and rises to untold beauty 
and glory. 

Is it not a part of God's purpose, in taking our 
loved ones from ns> to draw our thoughts and 
affections up to objects in the heavenly world? 
Whoever looks upon a map and casually reads 
the name of an almost unknown city on a for- 
eign shore, cares but little about it, because he 
knows but little. He has no interest, no treas- 
ure there. But let a dear friend take up his 
abode in that city, and that unthought of spot 
on the map becomes luminous with interest to 
him. He can not then learn enough about it. 

So we often open our Bibles, not heeding 
what they say about the city whose street is 
pure gold, whose wall is jasper, having founda- 
tions garnished with all manner of precious 
stones. But when one very dear to us has en- 
tered that city and made it his abode, that 
blissful place in an especial manner wins and 



SHALL NEVER DIE. 31 



holds our thoughts and affections. To learn 
about it is our delight and joy. 

Often we are too much engrossed with the 
things which perish. Some shock of disap- 
pointment, or sudden dashing of our idols, is 
needed to wrest our hearts from the vanities 
and shadows to which they cling, and awaken 
us to a sense of our spiritual and eternal needs. 
The cloud which overshadowed us and hid 
heaven from our sight, must be riven so that 
the light from the eternal throne may stream 
down upon us. We thus lose something earthly 
that we may gain something heavenly. 

Therefore in their departure from us our loved 
ones are blessing us ; and instead of being lost 
to us they are saved, and will soon be restored 
in a union more vital and complete than we 
have ever known. 

Said a father as he saw the light beyond, 
through the rifts in the clouds of affliction : " I 
never loved my darling daughter as I should, till 
she was taken from me ; and she never on the 
earth did half that she is now doing from the celes- 
tial world to elevate, refine, and ennoble my life.'' 



5^ 



THE BLESSED DEAD 



Such an experience is not limited to a few of 
the children of God. It is the testimony of all 
bereaved and sanctified souls. A new and spir- 
itual fellowship is given us, so that we walk not 
only with God, but with the redeemed and 
sainted dead. 

A -.?:;:. the departure of laved ones helps to fit 
us far the duties of our earthly state. 

Perhaps in the full enjoyment of this world's 
goods, and with a degree of selfishness which 
surprises us now. we have only sparingly 
met the demands of our loved ones upon us. 
We have not appreciated love, because they 
have not allowed us to know the bitterness :: 
our condition without it. 

We may have wounded the tender heart, 
because we did not understand the delicacv and 
frailty of its texture. We may have failed to 
perform kindly onices for those near and c 
to us, because we have not appreciated the 
rarity and the divineness of the opportunity 
afforded us. But when the eyes are close;: in 
death, and we have awakened to the greatness 
of our loss, we discover how tender was the 



SHALL NEVER DIE. 33 



relation which has been sundered, and how 
priceless the privilege now withdrawn forever. 
A useful lesson may be learned from Charles 
Lamb's sorrow expressed in the words : " Oh, 
I would give worlds if I could see my mother, 
and ask her pardon for the needless griefs that 
I caused her ! " 

Many a biography tells the same sad tale of 
unkindness and neglect, and depicts in striking 
colors the sorrow and remorse which have fol- 
lowed ; all of which should teach us to be more 
considerate and affectionate in our intercourse 
with the living. Hasty, ungentle words should 
be strangled in the thought and find no utter- 
ance ; for such words will surely ring with a sad 
sound in our ears when the heart which they 
pierced lies in the cold grave. Our anger 
should be smothered ; for what an unsightly 
thing passion is, how hideous it appears, when 
looked at from the stand-point of the casket or 
the grave ! How much better it is always to 
meet our loved ones with kindness, fill their 
ears with sweet and loving words, and go from 
them in benignity and peace. 



34 THE BLESSED DEAD 



These social ties are golden links of uncertain 
tenure. They may be sundered any hour. 
Every day brings its sorrow into some home ; 
and that home may be ours. 

We should cherish such a constant love and 
tenderness for all the dear ones with whom God 
kindly casts our lot, that no sad recollections 
shall mar our future, if they precede us in the 
march to the grave. Nothing should be done 
that will awaken within us an unpleasant emo- 
tion, in the hours when we cherish the most 
solemn and tender remembrances of the dear 
ones who have gone. Only affection and kind- 
ness should greet the faces, any one of which 
may in a few short hours be changed into the 
pallid hue of death. And if wrath rises in the 
soul, if a feeling of indignation gains the as- 
cendency for even the best of reasons, let not 
the sun go down on our anger, since his morn- 
ing beams may search in vain for us, or for the 
object of our displeasure. Better let love, kind- 
ness, good-will at all times fill our souls ; for 
we know not when our own heart, or that of 
our kindred, will cease to throb, and the grave 



SHALL NEVER DIE. 



35 



will tell the passer-by that we, or they, are 
on the earth no more. It is not unwise to 
live with our friends and companions every 
day as we would if we knew it were our last. 
Be as gentle, kind, and loving every hour, as 
if that were the last hour we should spend with 
them in the flesh. 

Again, God sends upon us great trials to teach 
us not to murmur at our smaller griefs. 

When in our daily life we are surrounded with 
many blessings, we are prone to be ungrateful, 
if not to manifest a peevish or complaining 
spirit. The loss of some trivial thing, in which 
our heart delighted, throws us out of equilib- 
rium with all about us. We chafe at ordinary 
disappointments, and murmur at small interrup- 
tions in the current of our prosperity and joy. 
We have formed, perhaps unconsciously, the 
habit of complaining or murmuring against God 
or his providence. But when a great sorrow has 
come, and our whole soul is crushed under the 
burden, we discover the insignificancy of our 
previous losses, and we see how causeless have 
been our lamentations. 



36 



THE BLESSED DEAD 



Little griefs disturb only the surface of our 
nature, as the light breezes ripple the water on 
the lake. Great trials, like a mighty whirlwind, 
plow into the depths of the soul, break up the 
lowest strata of it ; but they often leave us 
calm and serene, because they have driven us 
to God and given us rest in him. Like the 
babbling brook we toss ourselves the fiercest 
and roar the loudest when our disturbances 
are only slight, and the current of our distress 
is shallow. But when the soul is completely 
stirred and troubled by sorrow, when it is 
agitated to its very depths with grief, then it 
turns to the Rock which is higher than itself, 
and, hiding there, finds comfort and peace in the 
tender love and grace of Christ. 

Dr. Tholuck, the eminent German divine, 
said that he never made God his refuge till he 
found that there was no hiding-place in himself, 
or in his earthly friends. When his sorrow was 
large enough to show him the insufficiency of 
any human help, then he fled to him who is 
mighty to save. 

This is a priceless lesson to learn. In find- 



SHALL NEVER DIE. 37 



ing God, we find the loved ones who are 
hidden in him. We have had sweet commu- 
nion with them on the earth, and our cup of 
joy has been full ; but how much richer and 
sweeter is our delight and fellowship with the 
departed now that we think of them in the 
blessed mansions above. Heaven is not clean 
shut out from the earth. There is a spiritual 
communion of saints, even of those before the 
throne of God, with the weary denizens of earth. 

Again, great trials are sent upon us to disclose 
to us the depth and wealth of affection in other 
hearts. 

We often feel that there is but little sym- 
pathy and less love in the world. Ordinarily 
we come into contact with the lower and baser 
part of man's nature, and we sometimes find 
ourselves asking if there is any thing good in 
humanity. Our newspapers are full of accounts 
of murder, robbery, cruelty in a thousand forms, 
hard-heartedness which curdles the blood only 
to think of it, and we almost conclude that the 
nether mill-stone is the truest symbol of the 
human heart. We lament that there is not 



38 



THE BLESSED DEAD 



more fellow-feeling, compassion, benevolence, 
between man and man, and the fear sometimes 
arises within us, that the tender and sterling 
virtues have died out of the human soul. 

But when a great sorrow befalls one, how all 
hearts respond with sympathy and love ; how 
all eyes are filled with tears ; and how ready 
are all hands to help ! It makes one proud, not 
so much of humanity as of Christianity, to 
witness the sight. It must be one of the most 
pleasing spectacles on which angels gaze, to 
see the readiness with which Christian hearts 
respond to the calls of sorrow and grief, when 
those calls are heard and known. 

There is love in Christian hearts though we 
may not always see it. There is the tenderest 
sympathy in human souls, which awaits only an 
opportunity for its exercise. Affection is not 
dead. The virtue of self-sacrifice is not lost, 
yea, the spirit of martyrdom would disclose 
itself, in all its power and beauty, should the 
occasion require it. 

We should not know each other did we not pass 
through the fire of great and searching trials. 



SHALL NEVER DIE. 39 



They reveal, if they do not create, the brightest 
gems of character. In places where we least 
expected it, we often discover, by the fire of 
sorrow, the amethyst and pearl, the sapphire 
and diamond, in human hearts. 

God seems to use trials to uplift humanity. 
By them he brings into exercise faith, sub- 
mission, and whatever is holiest, purest, and 
noblest in the soul. Call it what we will, 
divine grace, good-will, benignity, or sympathy, 
it is truly God-like, and its manifestation, as 
we see it so often, should still the lugubrious 
murmurings, and crush the gloomy suspicions, 
that all is bad in the human heart. There is 
darkness in the soul of man, but it is not 
Cimmerian. There is depravity, but it is not 
total. There is something good in man. 
Christ lives and reigns in millions of human 
hearts. Our pessimistic fears are the inspira- 
tion, not of God, but of the enemy of man- 
kind ; our doubts as to the triumph of virtue 
are exhalations from the bottomless pit. Both 
are to be conquered by faith in him who is the 
Lord of life and glory. 



40 THE BLESSED DEAD 



How all this brings us to the sweet and 
soothing words of the Master : " Whosoever 
liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 
Life beyond is the victory of faith here. Being 
in Christ, we need have no fear of what death 
can do. One w T ho is mightier than " the king of 
terrors " has robbed him of his scepter and will 
crown his own followers with life and glory 
immortal. The dear ones who have preceded 
us in the heavenly way, we can leave with him 
who loves them more than we can, who has 
wiped all tears from their eyes, and has given 
them a crown and a kingdom, with rest and joy 
eternal. It is a blissful life which they are living 
in the presence of God, while we still toil and suf- 
fer here below. If we have obtained like precious 
faith, soon we shall be sharers of their glory. 

Dr. Owen Street said upon his dying bed : 
" I have no fears for the future ; I expect to 
live and reign with Christ.' , 

That is the Christian's faith. It is his 
blessed hope. Our pathway here may lead 
through regions of darkness and trial, but the 
end will be glorious. 



SHALL NEVER DIE. 4 1 



As you go over the Tete Noir pass in the 
Alps, from Montigny, you reach a point near 
the top, from which you look back into the 
valley of the Rhone. The prospect is like a 
vision of the land of the blessed. There is a 
Swiss dale, remarkable for beauty, dotted here 
and there with houses and villages, a silver 
thread winding its way through it, and shut in 
by vast eminences rising like terraces on either 
side. The mountains are variegated in color. 
The lowest range is green, and furnishes feed for 
flocks and herds, which graze upon its sides. 
The next is purple, and no king or queen was 
ever so gorgeously robed. The next is white 
with eternal frosts and the driven snows. Then 
towering above them all is a range lighted up 
with the sun and looking like temples and pal- 
aces of gold, while far off in the distance rise 
huge and lofty peaks which look like pillars of 
the stars. To one who has seen this sight, 
heaven is no longer an empty dream. God 
gives us these enrapturing views, these ana- 
logues of heaven, to quicken our zeal, strengthen 
our faith, and dispel our doubts. If the scenes 






42 



THE BLESSED DEAD 



of earth are so transporting, what must heaven 
be ! How the thought of that blessed world 
fills our minds with happy visions of the re- 
deemed, whose robes are made white in the 
blood of the Lamb, and who are " before the 
throne of God, and serve him day and night in 
his temple " ! 



TRANSLATED. 

Where art thou dearest? Where? 
Gone in a moment ! Vanished from my sight ! 
As fades a vision of the silent night ! 

Into the great Unknown, 

I know that not alone 
Thy gentle spirit winged its airy way ; 
Nor yet with anxious fear, as one astray 

That lonely on doth fare. 

Who gathered round thee then, 
While on thine eyelids fell earth's last, deep sleep, 
And loving eyes gazed on thee but to weep ? 

Jesus, thy Lord, was there, 

With angels bright and fair, 
To greet thy spirit yet untaught to range — 
Her pinions all untried — through regions strange, 

Beyond all mortal ken. 



SHALL NEVER DIE. 43 



To thee, when thou didst wake, 
'T was e'en as when, night's brooding shadows gone, 
On the tired watcher breaks the welcome dawn 

That light and gladness sheds, 

And o'er all nature spreads 
Fresh life ; while perfumed breath of dewy flowers, 
And joyous songs from vocal groves and bowers, 

Earth e'en as Eden make. 

On thy just opening eyes 
Fell, all divine, the beauty of his smile 
Whom, yet unseen, thy faithful heart, the while 

On earth it beat, adored ; 

That smile in sweetness poured, 
So full then seemed of gentleness and grace 
That thou couldst gaze upon that unveiled face 

Nor feel one fear arise. 

That vision not yet past, 
Methinks I heard his lips pronounce thy name ! 
When, at his voice, o'er thee strange rapture came 

That all thy being filled, 

And thy awed spirit stilled, 
Lost in admiring love's impassioned glow, 
With bliss so pure as none on earth may know ; 

Bliss evermore to last. 

Thyself an angel there, 
Or, as the angels, spotless, pure, and blest, 
Though yearning still to fold thee to this breast, 

Might Heaven the deed allow 



44 THE BLESSED DEAD 



Could I recall thee now? 
Wish thee again the mortal paths to tread, 
Again to feel of death's keen shaft the dread, 

And mortal anguish bear? 

Xo. no : that were the love 
To wrong, that through thine earthly years ne'er knew 
Aught but the good, the generous, the true ; 

That could thyself forget ; 

While tears of pity wet 
Thy cheek full oft at sight of other's woes ; 
And ever swiftly did thy hand unclose, 

That pity's truth to prove. 

And thou dost live, heaven born, 
The life of saintly love that, here begun, 
Death ended not : onward that life shall run 

Through heaven's immortal years ; 

Forgot earth's pangs and tears ; 
And I — O blissful hope ! — love's tasks with thee 
Again shall share, when parts the veil for me 

And breaks the eternal morn ! 

Nor shall the memory fade 
Of all thou wast below : a tranquil star 
Whose gentle, kindly radiance streamed afar, 

'T was ever thine to be : 

A household worshiped thee, 
Who call thee dearest still : still o'er thee weep ; 
And thy loved image in their souls will keep 

Till thev in dust are laid. 



SHALL NEVER DIE. 45 



Dear Lord, thy will be mine ! 
The cup thou giv'st me I would calmly take ; 
Thou hast not left this bruised heart to break. 

With thee there is no night, 

But wisdom's cloudless light ; 
Through earth's deep shadows, by that wisdom led, 
In patient trust henceforth my feet shall tread 

Heavenward — my hand in thine. 

— Ray Palmer. 



HEAVEN A HOME. 



Because man goeth to his long home. — Ecclesiastes 
12: 5. 

In my Fathers house are many mansions. — John 
14: 2. 

I saw the city of the skies ; 

And oft by faith-light gaze 
From earth toward the great sunrise 

Of everlasting days, 
And ponder 'mid the glittering domes 
And spires of our eternal home. 

Far off, up in a silvery clime, 

The sainted city lay, 
Blazing in bright worlds not in time, 

And not to pass away 
Like earth and its revolving spheres, 
Corroded, and grown dim with years. 

— Bryan. 

The home of fadeless splendor, 

Of flowers that fear no thorn, 
Where they shall dwell as children, 

Who here as exiles mourn. 

— Saint Bernard of Cluny. 



HEAVEN A HOME. 



We often use the word house in the sense of 
home. If you invite a friend to your house, you 
mean your home. In the New Testament we 
find instances of this enlarged sense belonging 
to the word house. It is impossible that a 
house should contain many mansions, but a 
home may. The home of the queen of Eng- 
land, or of the emperor of Russia, each consists 
of many houses or mansions. The Greek word 
translated "mansions" means resting or abid- 
ing places. The idea of repose and perma- 
nence inhere in it as they do not in a mere 
house. 

Jesus announces the glad truth that heaven 
is a home when he says : " In my Father's 
house are many mansions." The many man- 
sions constitute a celestial home. 

Delight in home is universal. The Hottentot 



5<D THE BLESSED DEAD. 



constructs his low mud hovel, and it is the 
sweetest spot on earth to him. The Indian 
fashions his rude wigwam, the hardy western 
pioneer erects his log-cabin, the New England 
settler builds his cottage, the merchant prince 
his palace ; and all find comfort, rest, delight in 
them, because they are their homes. 

Xo word of four letters suggests sweeter or 
more varied imagery to the mind than the word 
home. To the thirsty traveler it brings back 
the trickling of cold water and the creaking of 
the well-sweep at his father's shaded door. The 
sailor boy, far off at sea, carries in his heart the 
picture of his early home, and in his thought 
gazes oft upon it as he rocks upon the giddy 
mast. The soldier, lying wounded on the battle- 
field, longs for nothing so much as the sound of 
voices dear to him in his distant home. Why 
does the school-girl, after the term of wearying 
and exhausting study, move with such light and 
nimble feet, as she packs her trunk and bids 
adieu to companions and friends ? It is because 
the visions of home fill her soul and gladden 
her spirit. When the traveler in distant lands, 



HEAVEN A HOME. 5 I 



searching for lost health, sees that his journey 
is in vain and his earthly life is near its close, 
what an irrepressible longing seizes him to 
reach again his native land, that he may shut 
his eyes in death, and go to his rest under the 
skies and amid the familiar scenes of his old 
home. 

It is a beautiful passage, found in the life of 
the great historian Neander, which tells us of 
his last sickness. As the death shades were 
stealing upon him he remarked, " I am 
weary; let me go home." When that awful 
catastrophe, the falling of the Pemberton Mills 
at Lawrence, occurred, in one part of the ruins 
were several Christian young women. The fire 
which was consuming the building had not 
reached them, but they knew that no human 
efforts could extricate them alive from that 
flaming mass of material. Closely imprisoned 
by the timbers, they were fully aware of the 
dreadful torture which was near ; but with more 
than heroic faith they calmly awaited the ap- 
proach of the devouring flame, singing, "We 
are going home to die no more." 



52 THE BLESSED DEAD. 



When the returned English regiments, the 
wreck and remnant of the great Crimean strug- 
gle, marched in triumph through the streets of 
London, keeping step to the martial strains of 
England's grand anthem : " God save the 
queen ; " no sooner had the first rank wheeled 
beneath the gates of the Horse Guards, and 
those heroes of a hundred battle-fields felt that 
the empty pageant of the day was at an end, 
and they could give vent to the pent-up feelings 
of their hearts, than, without command or sig- 
nal from any officer, or preconcerted plan among 
themselves, slowly, sweetly, and softly, and with 
an electric power which thrilled every heart in 
that uncounted multitude of spectators, and 
drew tears from all eyes, arose the strains from 
the lips of that warrior host, of "Home, sweet, 
sweet home." Those men had, unmoved, faced 
danger and death for years. Many of their 
finer sensibilities had been destroyed by famil- 
iarity with scenes of violence and blood ; but 
there slumbered in those hearts, as in all others, 
deep, strong, and unquenchable, the love of home. 

We see from such facts how deeply imbedded 



HEAVEN A HOME. 



53 



in the human soul is the home feeling. Of it 
poets have sung, moralists have discoursed, 
statesmen have spoken, philosophers have theo- 
rized, and the whole race of man, cultured or un- 
cultured, have owned its more than magic spell. 

It is, then, not only a beautiful, but an inspir- 
ing fact, that the word of God presents heaven 
to the weary travelers of earth under the image 
of a blessed home, an eternal resting-place, 
near at hand. In this lies the chief attraction 
to many a weary and sorrow-stricken heart, of 
all that we expect beyond. 

Let us briefly consider some facts about the 
celestial home, to which so many of our dear 
friends have gone, and toward which all the 
children of God, now wanderers and pilgrims 
in an alien world, are fast hastening. 

We shall meet there our heavenly Father. 

God is in the truest sense our Father. He gave 
us our being and provides for all our wants. 
He takes us under his loving care, watches 
over and protects us in all our journey in life. 

How often we have in dark and trying hours 
looked up to heaven in prayer with the words, 



54 



THE BLESSED DEAD. 



" Our Father " on our lips. What inspiring 
thoughts have rilled our minds as we have 
meditated on his love, in providing an infinite 
ransom for our souls ! How the gift of the 
divine Spirit, and of the divine Word, to guide 
and cheer us in the pathway of life, has 
awakened gratitude and love in us ! We can 
not recount all his mercies, we can not repay 
him for his goodness to us ; yet every true 
child of God longs to see his heavenly Father's 
face, hear his voice, and dwell in his glorious 
presence. One of the chief delights of heaven 
will be that there we are with our all-loving 
Father. His gracious presence enfolds us ; his 
face is seen ; his voice, more melodious than 
the symphony of the stars, is heard; his hand, 
which upholds the world, is felt; his blessed 
fellowship and society are enjoyed. To be a 
child in the immediate presence of him who is 
clothed with every perfection, whose glory 
faintly shines in a thousand suns, whose beauty 
is dimly seen in the flowers, whose majesty is 
unmeasured by infinity ! Is not this a boon to 
be anticipated with delight ? 



HEAVEN A HOME. 



55 



We sliall, in our heavenly liome, meet Christ 
our Elder Brother. 

Not all earthly brothers are true and loyal in 
their affection. Many a heart has been made 
sad in this world because a brother has 
deserted, or betrayed, or disappointed it. We 
have thought the ties of blood were strong ; 
but we have found that self and sin are often 
stronger. The fluid which courses in the veins 
has been tainted by the iniquity which comes 
in through the choices and purposes of the 
heart. 

But our Elder Brother is wholly without sin. 
No mark of unfaithfulness is ever attached to 
him. He never won the love of a soul, grew 
cold in his desire, and betrayed it. He never 
acted an unfraternal part. He is infinitely 
more to us than is meant by the merely human 
relationship of brotherhood. 

To be with Christ, his Elder Brother, was 
what Paul looked forward to as one of the 
special joys of heaven. So Baxter and Flavel 
and many of the sainted dead have felt their 
souls revive in the midst of great troubles, 



56 THE BLESSED DEAD. 



when they have thought of meeting him who, 
in beauty, is the rose of Sharon, and in stead- 
fastness of affection, the solid rock. 

It is an inspiring thought, that heaven is a 
place of the richest social delights. Not only 
shall we meet our divine Father there, but the 
King himself will be our friend and brother, 
and he will take us to his throne, crown us, 
and give us places of honor near himself. He 
will call us by his own name, and make us 
heirs with himself to all his infinite possessions. 
And this brotherhood will be a real one ; for 
every saved soul is born of God. 

There are many ways in our terrestrial life, 
of becoming what is termed a brother. Many 
of them, however, make us brothers in name 
only. But our relationship to Christ is the 
truest and most actual of all. To be born of 
God is to be made a son of God, and therefore 
to become a real brother of Christ. In this 
life we taste some of the fruits of this union ; 
but no lips can express the joy which will flood 
us, in the world to come, from our brotherhood 
with the Son of God. 



HEAVEN A HOME. 57 



In the heavenly home we shall meet our dear 
departed Christian frie?ids. Some of us have a 
sainted mother there. We remember with fond 
delight her sweet and holy life, her beautiful 
character, her wise counsels and inspiriting pre- 
cepts. We can almost see her now, as she 
gently led us to her room, and on bended knee 
before God poured out her heart in our behalf, 
with tender and earnest pleadings which none 
but a mother could utter. Her petitions that 
we might be kept from sin, that we might early 
give our heart to Jesus, that we might choose 
as companions the good and holy, and that we 
might grow up strong in the Lord, will never 
lose their hold on our memory, or cease to 
influence our lives. 

What a delight to us to meet that mother 
on the blissful shore, saved, under God, by 
her prayers and counsels ! What trials and 
sorrows we have passed through since she left 
us, all of which we shall recount in her hearing, 
with the divine help and deliverance, which, 
through her instructions, sympathy, and love, 
have come to us. Words can not tell, no human 



58 



THE BLESSED DEAD. 



art can depict, the happiness which will be ex- 
perienced in the reunion of loving children and 
faithful parents, in the world where no sickness 
enters, no tears are shed, and no separations 
occur. 

Not only a mother, but all our dear friends 
who here lived for God and humanity, who 
crucified self and became like Christ, will be 
restored to us and will be our companions in 
the heavenly home. The father, the brother, 
the sister, the child, with whom we held sweet 
converse here, and whose presence was a 
perennial fountain of joy to us, was not re- 
moved from our sight to appear no more. No 
sooner shall we enter the land of eternal rest 
than we shall hear that sister's voice, so sweet 
to us in our earthly home, pouring forth, in 
notes celestial and divine, songs of redemption 
and salvation, of praise and glory. That 
brother, in whose manly form and noble charac- 
ter we took such delight here, is more than an 
angel now as he walks the golden streets of the 
New Jerusalem. When she, who with us had 
borne toil and hardship, whose hopes and fears 



HEAVEN A HOME. 59 



had been one with our own, who had watched 
by our bedside in sickness, whose brave spirit 
had cheered us in hours of darkness and sorrow, 
whose life had been our inspiration, who had 
been our best earthly friend and counselor, — 
when she lay down in the sleep of death, she 
did not cease to be. We shall meet her in the 
heavenly home ; and there all life's enigmas will 
be explained, and its mysteries solved. " For 
now we see through a glass, darkly ; but then 
face to face : now I know in part ; but then 
shall I know even as also I am known " (1 Cor. 
13: 12). 

It is not wrong to desire to meet again the 
loved ones who have gone before us. Heaven 
is richer, its melody is sweeter, its happiness 
more blissful, because of their presence in the 
sanctified throng. Truly, heaven is the 
home, where we shall meet and mingle with 
the good, the true, the holy ones of earth, and 
no fear of separation shall mar our joy. 

Our prospect of entering the heavenly home is 
our present likeness to its inmates. 

It is possible that one may be enraptured 



60 THE BLESSED DEAD. 



with descriptions of heaven, yet have no fitness 
for dwelling there ; as he may be ravished with 
sweet symphonies, while, through lack of train- 
ing, he can not sing the simplest tune ; or be 
transported at the sight of masterpieces of 
painting or sculpture, while, with his own hand, 
he can produce nothing of taste or beauty. 
The Bible gives us alluring pictures of the 
world of the blessed, to win us into the paths 
of truth and righteousness, of faith and love, 
and finally bring us into that blest abode. And 
we may, in our dreams, or when our better 
nature, in the house of God or on the bed of 
sickness, gains the ascendancy, think we should 
be happy in that pure and hallowed place. Our 
loved ones have gone from us, and their parting 
words may have been expressions of hope that 
we should meet again in the mansions of bliss ; 
and we accept it as a matter of course that 
heaven will be our home. 

But a hope thus founded may be a sad illusion. 
God does not admit to the society of the 
blessed those who have no fitness for it. If 
our hearts are not in sympathy with God and 



HEAVEN A HOME. 6 1 



with the holy beings who dwell with him, we 
can have no portion in the joys which are the 
eternal inheritance of his children. Not that 
God does not desire to have all become partak- 
ers of every good, but only those who are like 
God in their disposition, their spirit and tem- 
per, their tastes and desires, can enjoy heaven 
and find it a place of bliss. 

We need, then, to look carefully at this 
matter now. If in our tastes and enjoyments, 
choices and purposes, we are essentially unlike 
the holy ones around the throne, how can we 
expect to meet them and revel in their joys and 
delights ? If the service of God and commun- 
ion with him, if the society of the holy and 
good, are distasteful to us here and now, why 
will they not be the same when we have passed 
over the narrow stream which separates time 
from eternity ? Dissolution makes no radical 
change in the character. " As the tree falleth 
so shall it lie." As death finds us we shall 
go on, only strengthening the desires and habits 
which have here gained the mastery over us. 

It is, then, a momentous consideration for 



62 



THE BLESSED DEAD. 



every one to press upon himself : am I in taste, 
desire, my inmost spirit, in the aim and purpose 
of my life, like the dear ones who have pre- 
ceded me to the better world ? Could I go 
from my shop, my store, my fireside, up to that 
blissful abode, and feel that the atmosphere is 
congenial to me ? 

It is only as we are like God here — holy, 
pure, unselfish; and find our delight in doing 
his will, that we can have a reasonable hope of 
enjoying him when death has severed the bond 
which unites the soul to its tenement of clay. 

The Bible assures us that 110 one ivill be 
excluded fi'om the heavenly home for the want 
of room. 

If Christ had said: "In my Father's house 
are mansions," we might fear that, after all God 
has done for our salvation, it might fail, because 
there would be no mansion for such humble 
and sinful persons as we are. But when he 
says: "In my Father's house are many man- 
sions," and he sends forth his heralds and 
commands them to proclaim in the ears of 
all mortals that a great feast is prepared, 



HEAVEN A HOME. 63 



and there is room for more than all, then 
we know that, if any person fails of heaven, it 
will not be because God had not provided a 
mansion for him under the dome of his glory. 
Dear friends, there is room in heaven for you 
and for me. The gospel record says : " And 
yet there is room" (Luke 14: 22). God has 
fitted up a home with every thing in it which 
can attract and delight pure and holy beings. 
It is to be the eternal dwelling-place of those 
who love and serve God. The evidence that we 
love and serve him is that we honor and obey 
his Son, who came from heaven and died to 
redeem us. If it is our delight here to follow 
Christ, to keep his commandments, and build 
up his kingdom ; if we cultivate his spirit and 
are filled with his love, then neither life nor 
death nor any other thing will separate us from 
him ; but close by the celestial throne will be 
our home, and eternity will be too short for us 
to tell our joy. 

We are told of a Swiss peasant who had 
taken up his abode far from his native land. 
His life in a foreign country was hard, and his 



6 4 



THE BLESSED DEAD. 



heart was sad and disconsolate. One day his 
ear caught the notes of a melody which in his 
boyhood he had heard the Swiss shepherds 
sing. Those notes so filled his heart with a 
homesick feeling, that he abandoned his alien 
residence and returned to the mountains and 
vallevs which were so dear to him. 

I have hoped, by holding up this picture of 
heaven as a sweet home, to comfort the sorrow- 
ing disciples of Jesus and to sound, in the ear 
of some prodigal from his Father's house, a 
note which shall waken a desire for better 
things, praying that, like the Swiss peasant, he 
may this hour arise and return to the rich and 
sweet fields of faith, love, and duty, and thus 
become fitted to dwell forever with God and the 
redeemed in paradise. May none of us be deaf 
to the tender voices from the skies, and fail to 
enter the celestial home because we loved the 
service of the world more than the service of 
God, and the pleasures which perish more than 
the endless bliss of heaven ! 



HEAVEN A HOME. 



65 



HEAVEN A HOME. 

I love to think of heaven 

As a country fair and bright ; 
Its inhabitants are radiant 

In robes of spotless white. 
I love to sketch its beauties 

As far as I can trace ; 
Its smiles of rapture beaming 

On every joy-lit face. 
But oh ! it seems more beautiful 

To those who weary roam, 
To contemplate the happy thought 

That heaven is a home. 

The homes of earth are beautiful 

When sanctified by grace, 
But that one will be brighter still 

Before our Father's face. 
There will be no more crying, 

No sighing and no care, 
No fading of the blooming cheek, 

That oft awakes our fear ; 
No vacant seats, no sorrow, 

No trial will be there — 
A home with all its pleasures, 

A home without a care. 



66 



THE BLESSED DEAD. 



I love to think of heaven 

As a place of glory bright ; 
Its jeweled walls all brilliant 

With floods of living light ; 
The living crowns all shining 

On brows that know no care ; 
Its thrilling music streaming 

From every harp-string there ; 
But oh ! methinks that o'er the thought 

A matchless charm is thrown, 
That binds in beauty round the heart — 

That heaven is a home. — Anonymous. 



There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of 
the moon, and another glory of the stars ; for one star 
differeth from another star in glory. So also is the res- 
urrection of the dead. — i Cor. 15 : 41, 42. 

The many mansions signify the diverse dignities of 
merit in the one life eternal. As the stars, the saints have 
allotted unto them diverse mansions of diverse glory. 

— Saint Augustine. 

Therefore, as grace 
Inweaves the coronet, so every brow 
Weareth its proper hue of orient light, 
And merely in respect to his prime gift, 
Not in reward of meritorious deed, 
Hath each his several degree assigned. 

— Dante. 

All of yon worlds, and all who dwell in them, 

Stand in diverse degrees of bliss and being ; 

Through the ten thousand times ten thousand grades 

Of blessedness, above this world's and man's 

Ability to feel or to conceive, 

The soul may pass, and yet know nought of heaven 

More than a dim and miniature reflection 

Of its most bright infinity ; for God 

Makes to each spirit its peculiar heaven. — Bailey. 



DEGREES OF BLISS IN HEAVEN. 



Who can suitably describe heaven ? Better 
with a coal attempt to paint the sun in its 
splendor than with pen to portray the fullness 
of joy which the saints have at God's right 
hand. In the Apocalypse we have an inspired 
word-picture of the New Jerusalem, but what 
human mind can comprehend it ? How faint 
and inadequate are our largest ideas ! Upon 
the tombstone of a little blind girl are the 
words: " No night there." That was her con- 
ception of heaven. When Napoleon I. was on 
the island of St. Helena he had time to medi- 
tate on the future as well as the past. One day 
he remarked : " There will be no war in 
heaven/' That was his conception of the 
world of the blessed. 

The Bible says more negatively about heaven 
than positively. The ills of life are so many, 



7° 



THE BLESSED DEAD. 



its trials and burdens are so keen and heavy, 
that we can more easily form an idea of the 
bliss of heaven by being told what is not there 
than what is. The inspired writers say : In 
heaven there will be no thirst ; no hunger ; no 
pain ; no sickness ; no fear ; no unbelief ; no 
falsehood or lying ; no hate ; no envy ; no mur- 
der ; no impurity ; no tears ; no sorrow ; no 
night ; no sea ; no darkness ; no sin. 

To have for our eternal home a world free 
from those ills is much. Even that negative 
picture has many charms to the great mass of 
holy minds. But add now the positive part : 
holiness ; the glory of God and the Lamb ; the 
redeemed in robes of spotless white ; ceaseless 
songs of praise and thanksgiving ; divine fellow- 
ship ; completeness of knowledge ; perfection 
of character ; thrones, kingdoms, crowns, full- 
ness of joy, pleasures forevermore, endless 
bliss, perfect peace ; — then well may we say 
with Saint Paul : " Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, 
the things which God hath prepared for them 
that love him." 



DEGREES OF BLISS IN HEAVEN. 



71 



This inquiry about heaven is often made : 
Will there be degrees of bliss in that land of 
peace and rest ? Some persons seem to live 
under the impression that if they can only gain 
an entrance into heaven, it will be the same to 
every one. They think that the robber, con- 
verted on the cross, is as happy, in the world of 
light and glory, as Saint Paul, who spent twenty 
years of toil and hardship in the service of the 
Master. Not a few cling to the world till the 
last moment, supposing that the service of God 
in this life brings no reward in the life to come. 

If that i9 true, heaven will be under very 
different laws from any place with which we are 
acquainted now. The human mind is not so 
constituted that it can conceive of such an 
order of things. Cause and effect, sowing and 
reaping, progress from the less to the greater, 
seem to inweave themselves into all the works 
and ways of God. 

The word of God teaches that there will be 
degrees of bliss in heaven. 

There are many passages of sacred Scripture 
which declare that in the next life every one 



J 2 THE BLESSED DEAD. 



will receive according to the deeds done in the 
body. " And the dead were judged out of those 
things which were written in the books, according 
to their works" (Rev. 20: 12). If we are to 
be judged and rewarded according to our works, 
then the whole matter is decided ; for there is 
as much difference in the works of Christian 
men as there is between the mid-day sun and 
the faintest star. Some give their undivided 
life to God. All their time and talents, their 
industry and thoughts are for him. For him 
they practice self-denial and endure hardship, 
leaving, perhaps, country, home, friends, and 
dying a cruel death among strangers. Others 
float along with the current, knowing little 
about direct and self-sacrificing labor for God 
or man. In the judgment of charity they are 
Christians, but they fall far short of their duty 
and privilege. If in heaven we are rewarded 
according to our works, it would seem that the 
inheritance and the crowns of these two classes 
can not be equal. 

We are told that "he which soweth sparingly 
shall reap also sparingly ; and he which soweth 



DEGREES OF BLISS IN HEAVEN. 73 

bountifully shall reap also bountifully " (2 Cor. 
9 : 6). This is a great principle in God's deal- 
ing with his rational creatures. Our experience 
proves it to be true in regard to this life. He 
who in youth sows sparingly in virtue, knowl- 
edge, temperance, industry, is sure to reap 
sparingly in those things when manhood comes. 
He who idles away the spring-time has no 
harvest in the autumn. 

Not long ago a man who was about to be 
hanged for murder confessed that he had com- 
mitted more than one such dreadful deed. In 
self-condemnation, he said : " Mine has been a 
most bitter and sad life ; early did I begin a 
career of crime ; I sowed sin in my teens, now 
I reap the bitter fruit." 

That is only an illustration of the law in all 
parts of God's kingdom. Every person reaps 
what he sows. If he begins in the dew of 
youth to devote himself earnestly to God and 
to the welfare of his fellow-men, he will be lay- 
ing up a reward in character and moral excel- 
lence which will enhance his happiness through- 
out eternity. If, on the other hand, he has 



74 



THE BLESSED DEAD. 



filled his heart and life with self and sin, he has 
done much to detract not only from the rich- 
ness and glory, but from the possibility, of 
happiness in the future. One will enter heaven 
poor or rich, just as he has here neglected or 
accumulated the celestial treasures of love, joy 
in God, faith, holiness, purity of heart and life. 

Saint Paul alludes to this where he says : 
" Charge them that are rich in this world . . . 
that they do good, that they be rich in good 
works, ready to distribute, willing to communi- 
cate ; laying up in store for themselves a good 
foundation against the time to come, that they 
may lay hold on eternal life " (i Tim. 6 : 17-19). 

In these verses the work of life is asserted, 
and the reward promised. Those who are rich 
in good works in this life will lay up for them- 
selves, in the life to come, an inheritance of joy 
and peace ; which is as sure to follow as the har- 
vest follows the seed-time. While on the earth 
we lay the foundation of the glorious super- 
structure of eternal life and blessedness in 
heaven. 

Evidently then, the rewards of the future 



DEGREES OF BLISS IN HEAVEN. 



75 



state can not be the same to all the children of 
God. The whole spirit and tenor of the Bible 
is against it. It teaches that God keeps a strict 
account of his servants, and rewards them 
according to their works. 

Our ideas of common justice teach that there 
will be degrees of bliss in heaven. 

In the same town where the Rev. Dr. Edward 
Payson first saw the light, and in the same year, 
there was born another child of rare gifts, as was 
shown afterwards. Every inducement was put 
before him to lead him in the path of holiness, 
and incline him to give himself early to God. 
But he chose the world as his portion, lived 
in wickedness, and ruined by his brilliancy and 
vices not a few of the young with whom he 
came into contact. He lived a dissolute life, 
and scattered moral pestilence and death all 
along his pathway. 

That man died the same year that Edward 
Payson died, having been converted, it was 
thought, on his death-bed. 

Suppose those two men enter the world of 
glory the same year, the one from a life wholly 



7 6 



THE BLESSED DEAD. 



given to God, rich in the fruits of faith, love, 
and good deeds ; the other from a life given to 
self and sin, none of the trophies of virtue 
and holiness crowning it. They appear before 
the Judge and receive their reward. Both are 
saved, we suppose, because they rested their 
hope at the hour of death on the Lord Jesus. 
But one of them, before death, had made 
great progress in divine knowledge and in 
holiness of character, and his life was full of 
virtuous service. The other, in these par- 
ticulars, was less than an infant. The trend 
and habit of his soul was through an hour's 
experience of faith changed. But his life of 
neglect of God had dwarfed him, lowered him 
in the rank of saintly beings, and largely 
quenched his power to perceive and enjoy 
holy things. Heaven received him as death 
found him. He entered the celestial home as 
one who has wasted his youth enters the public 
schools with the purpose to become a scholar. 
A scholar he is, but under how great dis- 
advantages he labors ! How much he has 
lost, never to be recovered, and what difficulties 



DEGREES OF BLISS IN HEAVEN. 



77 






he encounters as he tries to apply himself to a 
course so strange to him. So when Edward 
Payson and his early companion entered 
heaven, the former at once took his place high 
in the celestial ranks, entered without delay 
into the richer joys and purer transports of 
that bright world, and had a keen relish for 
its sweet delights ; while his early friend, 
saved only as by fire, simply gained a place 
inside the gate of heaven, knowing nothing, 
by his earthly experience, of celestial joys, 
and having to learn even the alphabet of that 
better country. It must be long years before he 
will reach the rank to which Edward Payson 
attained on his entrance into that blissful 
home. 

It can not be that one can live a life of 
selfishness and sin here and escape the dreadful 
fruits of it in the world to come. God is just, 
and he confers with a sovereign, yet uneven, 
hand gifts and honors upon his creatures. If 
we love and trust him, if we keep his com- 
mandments, if we find our delight in serving 
and honoring him, if our business is done for 



78 



THE BLESSED DEAD. 



God, if we seek to please him in all things, 
then we are growing into a likeness to God 
which will secure to us a place near the throne, 
when we are called home. But if in the spirit 
and temper of our minds, and in our daily 
conduct, we are far from God, and have no 
special delight in him and likeness to him, not 
even Omnipotence can bring us to high and 
glorious seats among the redeemed. If we 
are thus saved we must be content with lowly 
places before the throne. Our sense of justice 
tells us that the faithful, obedient, God-like 
here, will be in exaltation there. 

Degrees of bliss in heaven are in harmony with 
all that we know of God in his providence and 
works. 

God endows different orders of his creatures 
with widely different gifts. The endowments 
of a starfish are meager compared with those 
of an eagle or lion. And how much superior 
to the gifts of the highest brutes are reason, 
conscience, will, speech, which are conferred 
upon man. In the vegetable world we find 
that the rose has gifts which far outshine the 



DEGREES OF BLISS IN HEAVEN. 



79 



daisy. Among minerals, the diamond is peer- 
less for hardness and brilliancy. The gifts with 
which God has endowed it, as compared with 
those given to the pebble, are well-nigh infinite. 
So in the heavens there is one glory of the 
sun, another of the moon, and one star differeth 
from another star in glory. In all God's works 
we find degrees, ranks, orders. In heaven there 
are angels and archangels, principalities and 
powers, seraphs who excel in love, and cheru- 
bim in power. And among men, what differ- 
ences we see ! Compare the intellect of New- 
ton or Bacon with that of many human beings 
whom we know. They are as the boundless 
ocean to a drop of water. Compare the heart 
of John Eliot — full of tenderness, sympathy, 
benevolence — with the heart of the wretch 
who never thinks of any one but self, and who 
battens on the miseries of his fellow-men, and 
tell, if you can, how far the one is exalted in 
excellence above the other. 

Every-where in this world we see vast differ- 
ences in gift and endowment. There is no level 
plain of bounty in any order of God's creatures. 



8o THE BLESSED DEAD. 



There are kings and queens in size and beauty, 
in worth and excellency, among the trees and 
flowers, the birds and insects, the plants and 
fruits, on the earth. The mountains and rivers 
are not alike in majesty, nor in the products 
which they yield. And why should not this 
principle hold also in heaven among the 
blessed ? Is it possible that Moses and Daniel, 
John and Paul, Hannah and Mary, will occupy 
no higher place before the throne than he who 
dwarfed his soul by sin, repenting only soon 
enough to get within the pearly gates ? 

We need only ask the question to find its 
answer. God will be unjust to no one. He 
will treat all with a divine generosity. Love, 
holiness, kindness are attributes which shine 
out with meridian splendor in all that he does 
and is. But while he confers different endow- 
ments upon his creatures, he yet rewards virtue 
and punishes vice wherever he finds them. 

Xo greater delusion ever got possession of 
the mind of man than that, if one repents and 
believes at the hour of death, he will at once 
enter the richest scenes and taste the sweetest 



DEGREES OF BLISS IN HEAVEN. 8 1 

delights of heaven. The arch deceiver of man 
is the author and propagator of such a false- 
hood. In heaven we shall reap as we have 
sown. If now we are ungenerous in our love 
to God and humanity, in our devotion to truth 
and righteousness, in our works of charity and 
benevolence, we shall reap frugally in the life to 
come. Not even God can prevent this unless 
he reverses the order of his creation and provi- 
dence. 

A life of self-denial and sacrifice here receives 
its compensation in the life to come. 

An aged Christian pedestrian, footsore, weary 
under his burden, paused on a hot summer's 
day at a fountain by the roadside, to refresh 
himself with the cooling waters. As he con- 
versed with a fellow-pedestrian whom he met 
there, a proud, selfish, scoffing worldling, in 
regal equipage, passed by. The harnesses on 
his horses glistened and gleamed with gold, 
and his chariot was soft with cushions of 
damask and silk. The humble disciple of 
Christ was on foot carrying his luggage, and 
feeding on a crust ; while the haughty scorner 



82 THE BLESSED DEAD. 



of God and man reveled in plenty and seemed 
to have no trouble. Apparently his was a life 
without a cross. 

The fellow-pedestrian asked the humble 
disciple of Christ how he reconciled this with 
the justice and the promises of God. Why 
does not the Almighty care for and reward 
his children ? 

The aged Christian replied calmly and with 
emphasis, as if the problem was as clear as 
light to him : " Couple heaven with my 
condition ; couple heaven with my condition." 
That is : Take my poverty, my burdens, my 
hardships, my self-denials, and add to them 
eternal bliss, and mark what they become. Do 
not pity me till you see all my fortune. I have 
a kingdom in prospect ; supernal blessedness 
is a part of my inheritance ; while luxurious 
scoffers of God in their life-time receive their 
good things. 

Here is certainly a great truth with a wide- 
reaching application. In a college you find 
two classes of students : one seeks present 
enjoyment ; shirks all the labor it can ; con- 



DEGREES OF BLISS IN HEAVEN. 83 

trives and abets the follies and disorder of the 
college ; eats and drinks luxuriously ; and seems 
to have little care or thought about difficult 
problems, hard lessons, or abstruse questions. 
The other class does not seek immediate happi- 
ness ; it knows what it is to be weary with 
toil ; it understands what an aching brain and 
twinging nerves mean. It has wrestled long 
and hard with intricate propositions ; taxed the 
intellect with great themes in science and 
philosophy ; has shunned luxury and whatever 
might enervate body or mind ; has made every 
thing in the present subserve its welfare in the 
future. 

We need not ask which of these classes of 
students is to furnish the eminent men and 
women of the next generation. The answer is 
too apparent. Self-denial is the law of success 
in all attainment. Sir Isaac Newton ate many a 
breakfast of simple oatmeal porridge, that he 
might have an unclouded brain with which to 
solve the mysteries of science. John Milton 
lived on a diet more sparse than the peasantry 
of England in his time, that he might give wings 



84 THE BLESSED DEAD. 



to his soul and soar to heights in poetry and 
arguments for liberty, which no one else had 
ever reached. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 
denied himself sweetmeats, though he craved 
them, because they took the edge off his mind. 
The immediate pleasure of them was at the 
expense of future mental clearness and power. 
This is simply the principle of self-denial and 
sacrifice. It is the cutting off a lower good for 
the sake of a higher and better. It is toiling 
in the spring-time, that we may reap a harvest 
in the autumn. It is fitting out a ship and 
guiding it across the ocean, that it may return 
laden with the products of other climes. We 
can deny ourselves in this life, with reference 
to the life to come, because they are both parts 
of one life. Youth and manhood are no more 
correlated than time and eternity. We shall 
be in heaven only what we have here laid the 
foundation for being. The Bible clearly teaches 
that the highest rewards of the world to come 
can be won only by sacrifice and self-denial 
(Mark 10 : 29, 30). It costs much to attain to 
superior excellence in the matters of this world. 



DEGREES OF BLISS IN HEAVEN. 85 

Transcendence in art, in literature, in music, in 
science, in handicraft, comes only as the recom- 
pense of herculean and patient effort. Surely if 
we would rise to honor and glory in the next 
life ; if we would be rich in the treasures which 
shall never be taken from us, we must be will- 
ing to suffer hardship, toil, and pain, — yes, die, 
if need be, — for Chrises sake now. So Moses 
" endured, as seeing him who is invisible." 
Abraham obeyed, "for he looked for a city 
which hath foundations, whose builder and 
maker is God." 

We see, then, I think, that there must be 
degrees of bliss in heaven. The way to attain 
to what is high and best there, God in his word 
makes plain. Yet sometimes our faith is per- 
plexed, and our feet refuse to go in the heavenly 
way. In our sorrow our eyes are blinded by 
tears, so that the goodness and the grace of 
God are hidden from our view. His very 
existence we may question. 

On a cloudy morning you have strolled on 
the ocean's beach, and there seen the patches 
of foam lying about you, all aglow with rain- 



S6 



THE BLESSED DEAD. 



bow colors. The fog was dense, the clouds 
were dark, no sun was visible as you looked 
into the sky, yet you knew there was a sun 
shining in regal splendor above, you saw it in 
the iridescent foam at your feet. Even' 
bubble gleamed with iris-gilded rays, sure 
tokens of the king of day. 

So our sorrows and trials sometimes become 
clouds and darkness, wholly enveloping us ; 
while God reveals himself to the eye of faith 
in a thousand objects about us. The Church 
is iridescent with his power and glory. 
Christian homes glisten" and gleam with his 
effulgence. Earnest, Christ-like souls every- 
where reflect beams which form rainbow arches 
in our heavens. God does not leave us with- 
out witness of his existence, his goodness, his 
love. The flower, the pebble, the insect, all 
herald God to a doubting and sorrowing world. 
And he assures us that not only here will he 
be the portion and joy of the believing soul, but 
that ever higher and richer displays of his grace 
and love, his wisdom and might, await it in the 
life to come. Our lot here may be humble, our 



DEGREES OF BLISS IX HEAVEN. 87 

privileges scant, our attainments, as the world 
reckons, small ; but up there we shall rise to 
glorious heights and be crowned with the radi- 
ance of the King. Character and grace shape 
our heads for the coronet. Not as in this world 
will wealth, learning, position give us our rank. 
There soul-worth, the gems of faith, love, 
knowledge of God, joy in him, submission, will 
give us our place. As we abound in moral and 
spiritual treasures we shall rise to higher or 
sink to lower seats. All orders and ranks in 
heaven are full of bliss. But as one star differs 
in size from another and sheds forth more and 
brighter rays ; as one golden bowl of the 
sanctuary is larger than another and holds more 
precious ointment ; so it is with redeemed 
souls. All in heaven will be replete with joy, 
peace, and bliss ; but the capacity of some far 
surpasses that of others. All will know God ; 
but some will know him more comprehensively 
than others. The bliss of each soul will be 
proportioned to what each can receive. And 
in heaven as on the earth, — 



88 



THE BLESSED DEAD. 



" Men may rise on stepping-stones 
Of their dead selves to higher things."" 

Progress must be the law there as it is in 
this world, and the happy souls around the 
throne are ever approaching " unto the measure 
of the stature of the fullness of Christ." 



HEAVENLY BLISS. 

I shine in the light of God, 

His image stamps my brow ; 
Through the shadows of death my feet have trod, 

And I reign in glory now. 

No breaking heart is here, 

No keen and thrilling pain, 
No wasted cheek, where the burning tear 

Hath rolled and left its stain. 

I have found the joys of heaven, 

I am one of the angel band ; 
To my head a crown is given, 

And a harp is in my hand. 

I have learned the song they sing 

Whom Jesus hath made free, 
And the glorious walls of heaven still ring 

With my new-born melody. 



DEGREES OF BLISS IN HEAVEN. 89 

No sin, no grief, no pain — 

Safe in my happy home ; 
My fears all fled, my doubts all slain, 

My hour of triumph come. 

O friends of my mortal years ! 

The trusted and the true, 
You 're walking still the vale of tears, 

But I wait to welcome you. — Anonymous. 



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